The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon Bombers proved to their fans on Thursday night, that when they show up to play, there isn't a team in the league that can beat them. For the second night in a row, the Flin Flon Bombers prevented the Battlefords' North Stars from earning two points and moving into first place in the SJHL, beating them 7-3 in front of 677 fans at the Whitney Forum. Curtis Fransoo put the North Stars ahead with a short handed marker at 9:56 of the first period, but Derek Gallagher replied with his first of two goals on the night at 17:33, assisted by Derek Blais. Gallagher potted his second of the game just 59 seconds after the opening face off in the second period from Jeff LaPointe. His blast went off the blocker of Brent Walker, and the power-play goal was his 13th score of the season. Scott Mannula tied the game with Battlefords' second short handed goal of the game at 8:17, but on the same power play, Derek Blais scored from Andrew Skrabek at 8:35 to put the Bombers ahead 3-2. The Blais tally was the first of five consecutive goals for the Bombers in the second period, and was the obvious turning point of the hockey game. Stewart Sjoberg scored unassisted at 11:46, and Derek Blais netted his second power-play goal of the game at 17:19 from Anatoliy Moshkovsky and Joe Gori during the first half of a four-minute advantage. Jeff LaPointe scored on the second half, assisted by Derek Gallagher to make it 6-2 for Flin Flon, and at 19:03, John Iron scored after a Stewart Sjoberg and Tyson Knight bought, assisted by Andrew Skrabek and Joey Moggach. Flin Flon did put a puck past Walker in the third period, as Ryan Cosgrove popped in a loose puck, but the goal was waved off as the referee determined that Joey Moggach had interfered with the goaltender. The only goal of the third period was scored on the ensuing power play by Dylan Dufour of the North Stars at 16:27, but that was as close as they would get, as Flin Flon would hold on to win 7-3. The Bombers scored four power-play goals on ten chances, while the North Stars were held to one goal on five tries. Flin Flon played a well disciplined game, while Battleford was anything but disciplined, including a helmet-throwing incident and a stick swinging episode involving a fan after the game. With the win, the Bombers can finish no worse than fifth place in the Dodge conference, as they are five points ahead of La Ronge, who have 40 points in 58 games, while Flin Flon now has 45 points in 57 games.
